They know where you live, work, play, shop, eat and a hell of a lot more

You’ve probably never heard of these companies — and that’s the way they like it.

They’re the advertising-technology firms that work stealthily — and profitably — behind the scenes of various online advertising networks, phone apps and brands. Their mission is to:

Target you with ads specific to your precise location (latitude and longitude);

Target you with ads based on past historical location information; and

Trace your movements between various locations and bring it together to profile you even further and re-target you just when they need to — which enables them to charge brands an even higher fee for the ad they put in front of you.